So the donut-making LifeNight was a success. I saved the day by saying to myself, "Ok, enough procrastination. It's too late to collaborate, so plan the night, and then ask for help getting it done." I put my brain to the grindstone and came up with a good LifeNight using two templates. I then asked for help getting it done, and Debbie saved the day by, almost by herself, getting it done. I proceeded to do hours of working and dancing, and then fitting lots of research into working a speech outline and understanding what I was talking about. Debbie, on the other hand, called and emailed everyone that needed to be contacted, made 175 donuts sunday morning (which is a pain in the behind, if you have never made a donut), brought pretty much the entire decoration scheme, including organizing the other core team to paint the signs I needed. I made the (very simple) slideshow. Then, in front of the teens, while failing utterly (in my opinion) to use the speech that I literally had right in front of me, I cooked three donuts for the first time in my life. And they were good. And I was funny, if not as much of a teacher as I had planned to be. And the video that we chose to use but had never seen Actually worked, covering what we were talking about, despite being on a different topic. And then my small group got mad at me, because they were told to get into groups of 10, instead of to find their normal small group leader, so I was clumped by a bunch of teens near me, and couldn't make it to the other side of the room where they had turned down other core members because they were waiting for me. [sighs] You can't win them all.

That's the primary thing in life on my mind. I've gotten an average of 3.5 hours of sleep a night for the last 4 nights, and I feel great. [laughs] Work is going well, as everyone gets into the hang of things. I was worried that Josh would decide he didn't want to keep working with us, but since I've put particular emphasis on making sure he gets prep work and line work and not just dishes, he's a good part of the team. Darrin is bad about slowing down in his work when talking, when he feels that he has time to do so. Joe's brain bounces around so much that he forgets simple things, like putting plastic wrap on Everything (you can literally follow the trail of non-wrapped pans to know what he's been doing) and prep work that is unrelated to whatever party he's focused on at the time. Even so, he's never sitting around doing nothing. And, we got a new snack shop girl today, apparently. Courtney will be happy, because now she won't have to work 60 hour weeks. From the initial interaction I've had with the new girl, she seems competant. That generally worries me more than anything else about new snack shop workers. [laughs]

Dancing is happening again. I can't swing very well right now, due to my injured left hand (swing tends to involve scramble grabs now and then, and I would either end up missing because of my thumb, or screaming in pain when someone grabbed or bumped my thumb hard). I went to Sonia's on friday and made some new friends, and the dancing was good. Someone described me as one of the best tango dancers in Houston. Really, I can see where they're coming from, because I'm fun to dance with and I suppose fun to watch, but I'm very quick to correct that mistake whenever it comes up, because I'm very much Not one of the best Tango dancers, since I'm still in the process of learning tango myself. There are some fundamentals that I've been fudging and haven't really learned into my muscles yet. I also went to Helios after church (with my car full of crap including my quarterstaff (used for the game as a curtain rod), a fryer with oil (cooled), a bowl of dough, a bowl of glaze, a backpack with books and shoes, my work uniform jacket, my dance shoes, and a few cds). It was a good number of people, so that I got to dance with everyone I know before running out of time. Lara showed up (she got into town yesterday) just in time to dance the last 4 songs. [laughs and shrugs] She has improved a lot. We managed to find a connection by the end of the first song, and the last 3 were great. I'm also super impressed with Dana, who is either practicing a lot or taking lessons, because her ability to follow is advancing in leaps and bounds. There were some other advanced dancers I know tangentially (don't argue my word choice) who were harder to dance with because they're used to dancing a certain way and like to dance a certain way, and I'm...just something different. Still fun, but it's like we spent half the time trying to figure out what we were saying to each other, rather than simply understanding across the non-verbal language barrier. [shrugs]

Anyway, this week is: hang out with Kat tonight, because Raph comes into town tomorrow, and then I won't see her much. work tomorrow, then something which I've forgotten. Wednesday hang out with Lara during the day (so we're not seeing the world in black and white), then tango dancing. Thursday work, then bachelor/bachelorette combined party (Yes, I know, it sounds strange, but they're not crazy hedonists trying to get out a little immorality before the wedding, but to have a party where all their friends can see them before they run off to Hawaii for a week and then back to Kansas where we won't see them often or conveniently.) I'm not sure about friday evening, but hopefully I can follow my normal schedule. Saturday afternoon is the wedding, and maybe I can make it to Eric's tango workshop afterward, and then maybe the crazy birthday bash at Havok, since I've got a great (and easy) costume idea. Sunday is mother's day, so I'll be working all day (6am until we're done). And then it starts over [laughs]. See you, blogger. I'll talk about something worth reading next time.